Halo Books

[Limited]

Okay, I finally found a place that sells them (woot), now theres 4 right? The Flood, First Strike, The Fall of the Reach, and Ghosts of Onyx.

Now I was wondering, do you need to read them in a certain order? Are they like a "series" or are they just books about different stories in Halo?

:D

[Jay2645]

There's 5.
In order, with the games added in for better knowledge of exactly WHEN everything happens:
Contact Harvest
Halo Wars
The Fall of Reach
Halo 1/The Flood (Just play H1, The Flood is like a crappy game walkthrough with some uninteresting extra parts)
First Strike
Halo 2/Ghosts of Onyx (Same time, different stories)
Halo 3

[Limited]

So I guess it does matter which order you read them in.

I thought the order was this: (got from wikipedia)
The Fall of Reach (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halo:_The_Fall_of_Reach) · The Flood (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halo:_The_Flood) · First Strike (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halo:_First_Strike) · Ghosts of Onyx (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halo:_Ghosts_of_Onyx) · Contact Harvest (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halo:_Contact_Harvest) · Halo Graphic Novel · Halo: Uprising (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halo:_Uprising)

[Bodzilla]

Dude not worth the money, seriously.

if you want a good read you can do a HELL of alot better in terms of fluency, dialogue, pacing and depth then the Halo series.

If you want to read them i suggest borrowing them from a friend or a library or something.
unless this is a "I have to have them, because it's halo" type collectors style of thinking i would not suggest or even encourage you buying them.

these books are a worse read then the RL.stein Goosebump Series.
no.

[JDMFSeanP]

I like them, they are fun to read, except for the one that summarizes halo 2, bored the shit outa me.

[Bodzilla]

^how old are you buddy?

(not being offensive here)

[chicane]

The books aren't very well written. They're dry and lack sentiment.

[Jay2645]

I like them, they are fun to read, except for the one that summarizes halo 1, bored the shit outa me.
There is no novel that summarizes Halo 2. You're thinking of The Flood.
And the Halo Graphic Novel "jumps" from place to place. One second, it shows how Johnson escaped the Flood, next second, it's another Spartan trying out MC's shiny new suit before he gets it (Beta testing, if you will, and that also explains why it already had scratches on it when he got it), then we go to 2 soldiers intercepting Dr. Hasley's data pings on Johnson's files (It's in First Strike) and replacing them with falsified records.
I read them just to know what's going on in the Halo universe (And for hints about H3's ending, didn't help any). The Star Wars series is a million times better, if you want some Sci-Fi to read.

[Limited]

Seeing as I hardly read any books, I want to start reading a book that I have a general interest in.

[Bodzilla]

your like 18 or 19 arnt you Limited?

trust me dude, you'll be bored out of your skull. it's not for over 15's and it's ideally for 11-13 yr olds :/

What Genre do you like Besides the halo universe?
Crime books, SCI-fi, Fantasy?

[supersniper]

Meh I read Harry Potter those were good. But never the Halo books. So I am taking it that they suck and are not recommended to read.

[Limited]

your like 18 or 19 arnt you Limited?

trust me dude, you'll be bored out of your skull. it's not for over 15's and it's ideally for 11-13 yr olds :/

What Genre do you like Besides the halo universe?
Crime books, SCI-fi, Fantasy?
Books? Uh well, the last book I read (under my own free will) was the Harry Potter series, I started reading when I was so young, I had to read to see what happened.

I have a Chris Ryan book with me, I might start reading it, basically its like the Tom Clancy books, its about an SAS soldier. The one I have is called "The Hit List".

Apart from that, I dunno what books I'm into really, probably not sci-fi, but not sure really.

[Kornman00]

Hey, I liked dem Halo books meester !:maddowns:>

[thehoodedsmack]

I personally liked all the books, including The Flood. Yeah, some of it I had played through, but I liked the sequences that looked at Flood-infected Jenkins, the killing of Keyes' survival team, Keyes feeding his memories to the Flood. etc. It opened up the idea that the Flood is a seperate intelligence, and not some zombie-fying, for lack of a better word, head-crab. If you like the Halo storyline, which some people do as a matter of fact, then you'll enjoy the books.

[itszutak]

Dude not worth the money, seriously.

if you want a good read you can do a HELL of alot better in terms of fluency, dialogue, pacing and depth then the Halo series.

If you want to read them i suggest borrowing them from a friend or a library or something.
unless this is a "I have to have them, because it's halo" type collectors style of thinking i would not suggest or even encourage you buying them.

these books are a worse read then the RL.stein Goosebump Series.
no.
IAWTP. I was inspired to rewrite the stories after reading them. :/

[Zeph]

Dont bother reading The Flood. It was written by a different author who only read part of the other books. He tried to incorporate the other books history, but utterly failed.

[flibitijibibo]

Yeah, I only used The Flood for a report so I didn't have to actually read anything. IMO, Fall of Reach was the best out of the first three. Still need to get Contact Harvest. >.>

[Mr Buckshot]

Halo books aren’t great. Good action here and there, but try to write a book report or a T.O.K. essay on a Halo book and you’ll receive an automatic F. That’s how lowly the writing quality is.

Seriously, just read the spoiler summary on Wikipedia, which is what I did.

If you really want to read them, grab them at the library. I don’t know how it is in the UK, but in Americans stores (i.e. Barnes & Noble) and Canadian stores (i.e. Chapters), the books are not wrapped so anyone can read them without paying.

[Masterz1337]

I like the halo books.The only one that I felt really stood out though was First Strike.

[Mass]

I read maybe 4 pages of Fall of Reach before deciding I'd rather spill hot coffee on my balls than read the books for myself. The action was cheesy, the writing was poor, and it needed a lesson in brevity and logic.

I feel that the main strength of Halo beyond gameplay is its art and story.

This took the Halo universe, sucked the art and majesty out of it, and then spent page upon page described rediculous and mind-numbingly illogical and detached action sequences.

Don't read it if you have any desire to be captivated or stimulated.

[TeeKup]

Didn't the spartans attempt a free fall jump from their drop ship in Fall of Reach? Like above 3 kilometers or something?

[supersniper]

Everyone has different likes and dislikes. My advice limited is get any Halo book from the library, read it, then if you like it go out and buy them. It is hard to take opinions on books from other people because they usually have different likes and dislikes.

[teh lag]

Only read them if you want to know what happens in the Halo storyline more clearly (and even then they occasionally contradict each other in small but nevertheless unsettling ways); as books to read for the purpose of reading I wouldn't say they're that great.

[legionaire45]

I liked all the books and actually wrote several essays on them in school, all of which received A's >___>.

[JDMFSeanP]

^how old are you buddy?

(not being offensive here)

16

I really liked the start of ghosts of onyx especially.

I don't read them so much as for a good read but more for a surplus of information on the backstory and everything, they are just fun to read for me I guess.

I just started contact harvest and have to finish it, schools been taking up too much time.

[TeeKup]

Well, this thread urged me to re-read First Strike, problem is I can't find it, which really pisses me off cause I actually enjoyed first strike.

[Amit]

I liked all the books and actually wrote several essays on them in school, all of which received A's >___>.

Damn straight, I wrote one essay on the Flood and still received a 96% on it. Limited, don't let all these other people fill your mind with doubt of the novels. The writing isn't spectacular but it isn't enough to make you hate it. I have read and own all of the books(including the graphic novel) except for Contact Harvest and Uprising. They had a lot of action and I felt the storyline was great. When I first read the books before I bought them, I mistook First Strike as the first novel and read that first. It didn't kill me but it almost confused me when reading some of the other books because they have many flashbacks throughout the series. Fall of Reach will always be in my heart as my favourite because it is talking about the origin of the Spartan-IIs and there are many scenes I remember about the young Spartan-IIs that I hold dear to myself.

I found the stories very gripping and it took me no longer than 2-3 days to complete any one. I simply couldn't put them down. It's the mystery of the books that kept me grasping for more. I have read each one of the books I own at least twice and no matter how busy I am, they keep me glued to the story to the last second possible. They are also excellent books to just read to forget about your troubles for a while. So go ahead and borrow them from a library before you buy them but I still highly recommend that you just buy them and read them because they are very great books the read about background information of Halo if you've only played the games. They describe so much about the other Spartans and what happened to them. Most of the information on the Halopedia comes from the books, where else are they gonna get it from? Also, it does help to play Halo: Combat Evolved and Halo 2 before you start reading the series.

[ExAm]

^how old are you buddy?

(not being offensive here)I like the backstory. No matter how badly they appear to be written, I like them. I kinda formulate the story in my head as I read, rather than paying attention to the writing. like watching a movie. With my mind. :v

[Limited]

If you really want to read them, grab them at the library. I don’t know how it is in the UK, but in Americans stores (i.e. Barnes & Noble) and Canadian stores (i.e. Chapters), the books are not wrapped so anyone can read them without paying.
They go APE shit, if you read the books and dont purchase. I went into a book store a couple of years back, picked up a book, and read the prologue page and the cover/back, and the women came up to me so pissed off and said "Excuse me young man, this is NOT a library, we are here to sell books not let pesky people have a free browse, please leave the shop before I call the police".

Overreaction or what, havent been into a book shop since.

Doubt any of the librarys around here will have the book, I might just pass on it or ask around see if I can borrow it from some one.

[Warsaw]

Fall of Reach and First Strike were the best ones. The others weren't as good.

The Halo story overall is awesome until you hit Halo 2, where the shit hits the fan and sprays in all directions.

[Jay2645]

Fall of Reach and First Strike were the best ones. The others weren't as good.

The Halo story overall is awesome until you hit Halo 2, where the shit hits the fan and sprays in all directions.
Agreed. Halo 2 was a major Bungie fuck-up. Halo 3 wasn't so bad, it tried to go back to Halo 1-style, but it still suffered from Halo 2's failures. This goes for the books, as well. Anything based around or just after Halo 2 suffers because Halo 2 sucked so badly.
Same thing goes in the Star Wars universe for any books based around The Phantom Menace or Attack of the Clones. Anything from ROTS on is pretty good, but before then, it's horrible. With the exception of Republic Commando, of course. The game was great, books were meh.

[chicane]

I don't think halo 2 was so bad storyline wise. I liked the separation of the elites and brutes, and I liked playing as the arbiter. Halo 1's story line was almost nonexistent.
Without reading the books I would never have known that the covenant were waging a holy war or known the character of the elites, etc. It was extremely ambiguous, but that in a way was charming. This is completely off the topic of storyline, but whatever happened to all the cool vehicles and such that were implemented in halo 2? I never saw one of those "shadow" land transports in halo 3, or a specter, or even the enforcers. They could have been flying around on the ark if Bungie chose to. Also, they made elites almost completely useless in halo 3 while in halo 2 they were challenging for me. Bungie is just like George Lucas. He focused to much on special effects in revenge of the sith, and bungie focused to much on multiplayer in halo 3.

[Bodzilla]

Fall of reach is the best one?
>___>

I'm glad i didn't shell out money for the other ones then. :|

[Botolf]

Don't read the books if you're looking for excellent science fiction novels, read them if you're interested in the backstory behind the games. If you want better science fiction, it's plentiful :p

[Warsaw]

I don't think halo 2 was so bad storyline wise. I liked the separation of the elites and brutes, and I liked playing as the arbiter. Halo 1's story line was almost nonexistent.
Without reading the books I would never have known that the covenant were waging a holy war or known the character of the elites, etc. It was extremely ambiguous, but that in a way was charming. This is completely off the topic of storyline, but whatever happened to all the cool vehicles and such that were implemented in halo 2? I never saw one of those "shadow" land transports in halo 3, or a specter, or even the enforcers. They could have been flying around on the ark if Bungie chose to. Also, they made elites almost completely useless in halo 3 while in halo 2 they were challenging for me. Bungie is just like George Lucas. He focused to much on special effects in revenge of the sith, and bungie focused to much on multiplayer in halo 3.

You my friend were living under a rock then. The story is evident in the games. You must've skipped/slept through all the cuts-cenes and not payed attention to the dialogue during actual game-play. Halo 2's story was poorly executed, and Halo 3 suffered a la UT2k4 because of it. Had they stuck to a slightly more conventional story-line, it would've been awesome. But no, they decided to twist it up with the Covenant splitting, and then making your primary enemies for the final game utterly pathetic, and then making your allies even worse.

[chicane]

Whether you like the splitting of the covenant or not is your opinion and I won't argue the point, but I completely agree with you about the enemies. brutes are pathetic. The Viddoc they released a while ago was very misleading.

[Warsaw]

Touche.

[Botolf]

Brutes are pathetic? Lessee, they're smarter than any previous Halo enemy, the Chieftans are simply badass, brute packs actually feel and and play like such, their Choppers are simply incredible, etc.

Ya, that's pathetic, alright :eyesroll:

[Warsaw]

Chieftans are only "badass" because they have invincibility (which the old enemies didn't need to be tough) and OMGWTFHUGE cannons that home in on your position, the Brute packs only act as such until you actually start killing them, and their tactics are actually quite stupid (they only somewhat work because they outnumber you 20:1).

:v

But that's not the point here. The point is that once you do get to Halo 2 in the books, it gets stupid, and actually, I wouldn't really recommend reading beyond First Strike. Ghosts of Onyx had a little too much handwavium in it for my taste, and didn't seem to fit the rest of the Halo 'verse.

[Botolf]

Chieftans are only "badass" because they have invincibility (which the old enemies didn't need to be tough) and OMGWTFHUGE cannons that home in on your position, the Brute packs only act as such until you actually start killing them, and their tactics are actually quite stupid (they only somewhat work because they outnumber you 20:1).

:v
There's far more reasons why, as any fight with them will suggest. They don't need invincibility to be tough at all, if you truly believe that, it becomes hard to believe you've fought them. If Brute tactics are "quite stupid", then the Elites are the greatest example of mental retardation. I find it really hard to believe someone would claim that Elites are somehow smarter than Brutes, it's true if you're talking about Halo 2's chimps, but this is simply no longer the case.

[Con]

I'm reading Contact Harvest right now, I like it :\

[Jay2645]

I liked the Elites because they had recharging energy shields, making them seem more like a legitimate enemy.
Brutes always felt... wrong in the Halo universe. It didn't make it feel like Halo.
The Drones had the same effect, but no where near as bad. The Hunters and Jackals had several improvements over Halo 1, though, and, when you did fight Elites in H2, they had several improvements as well.
I just kill the Elites in H3 so they fight me, and then I can make it feel like Halo 1 all over again. Except the Marines are trying to kill me, too. And Arbiter.

[Con]

I never liked how the hunters got those beams instead of the H1 single fuel rod bolt.

[dg]

I never read Contact Harvest or Ghosts of Onyx.

The others were great.

[jngrow]

I read maybe 4 pages of Fall of Reach before deciding I'd rather spill hot coffee on my balls than read the books for myself. The action was cheesy, the writing was poor, and it needed a lesson in brevity and logic.

I feel that the main strength of Halo beyond gameplay is its art and story.

This took the Halo universe, sucked the art and majesty out of it, and then spent page upon page described rediculous and mind-numbingly illogical and detached action sequences.

Don't read it if you have any desire to be captivated or stimulated.

I agree to some extent, I only read Fall of Reach, but 60% of the fight sequences made NO SENSE AT ALL.


Whether you like the splitting of the covenant or not is your opinion and I won't argue the point, but I completely agree with you about the enemies. brutes are pathetic. The Viddoc they released a while ago was very misleading.

Agreed x50. Also, I didn't think Halo 2 was that bad. Just the last level was enough to kill the ENTIRE game. The boss fight was gay, anti-climatic, boring, and you played as an elite for the last level, AND the regular ending itself was anti-climatic, boring, no closure whatsoever.

[Jay2645]

I agree to some extent, I only read Fall of Reach, but 60% of the fight sequences made NO SENSE AT ALL.



Agreed x50. Also, I didn't think Halo 2 was that bad. Just the last level was enough to kill the ENTIRE game. The boss fight was gay, anti-climatic, boring, and you played as an elite for the last level, AND the regular ending itself was anti-climatic, boring, no closure whatsoever.
You mean:
"This is Spartan 117."
"The Master Chief? What are you doing here?"
"Sir. Finishing this Fight."

[jngrow]

You mean:
"This is Spartan 117."
"The Master Chief? What are you doing here?"
"Sir. Finishing this Fight."

Yep.

[Cortexian]

I liked the HALO books, back story is always good to have. Regardless of how shitty it is.

[Amit]

and you played as an elite for the last level, AND the regular ending itself was anti-climatic, boring, no closure whatsoever.

Racist Bitch :( Why do you hate elites? Did you expect Master Chief to just magically jump from High Charity to Delta Halo's Control Room?

I don't understand why people still insist that Halo 2 is a shitass game because it has a cliffhanger ending. It was perfectly fine for me. I mean, Master Chief coming back to Earth aboard an Alien spacecraft was a great way to begin a new game. I wouldn't want to start playing more battles on Earth and then having to be cut away from the action to end the game and pick it up during ground battles in the next game. People also thought the campaign itself sucked. Well in some places it did but it was pretty good overall. The only problem I ever ran into was that the Marines couldn't drive for shit. Anyone else remember getting run over when the driver reversed over you in Metropolis right before the Scarab destroys the Scorpion? Or the time on Delta Halo where the driver would stay in one spot after killing the 3 Jackal snipers right after clearing the drop-zone? Yup, happy days with Helljumpers. Too bad they never made it to hell.

[Warsaw]

I don't mind the cliffhanger ending. I do mind the fact that they made it even more linear than the previous game (you can only approach each area the same way, where as there were many ways to approach them in the first game), made the Covenant the dominant theme in the game, and combined the two campaigns. Also, it wasn't very fun to play after the first time.

[Botolf]

My biggest two problems with halo 2's campaign was the cliffhanger and the disjoint between Arbiter's missions and the Chief's missions, the storyline just got to be a confusing mess, and you started losing track of the whole story.

[TeeKup]

I FOUND FIRST STRIKE!! Yay.

Also I finished Ghosts Of Onyx, holy shit that was epic. Compared to the sentinels in the game, the Onyx sentinels should have been re-named "floating rape"

[Warsaw]

Those sentinels also do not resemble regular sentinels at all in any way other than the fact that they shoot beam lasers.

[TeeKup]

I so want to fight those sentinels in the games, screw the Halo Sentinels. D:

[Bodzilla]

I so want to fight those sentinels in the games, screw the Halo Sentinels. D:
you probably would :-3

[ExAm]

you probably would :-3No, no. You've got it backwards! He's a Catcher, remember? :v

[n00b1n8R]

We try not to :gonk:

[TeeKup]

OK GIVE IT A REST. CHRIST.

[ExAm]

OK GIVE IT A REST. CHRIST.k

[jngrow]

My biggest two problems with halo 2's campaign was the cliffhanger and the disjoint between Arbiter's missions and the Chief's missions, the storyline just got to be a confusing mess, and you started losing track of the whole story.
Yeah, it seriously took me like 2 months before I totally understood it.